Tabs

7/03/2010

The Golden Rule...

I've been working retail for about eight months now. And, for the most part, I've liked it. I mean, it's not exactly life changing work, and it's not exactly challenging. But it's alright.

But for the last month or so, it's really been getting to me.

Not the job. The job is fine. It's the customers. I'm really starting to get bummed out with people being rude to me. The littlest of these offenses is someone walking up and interrupting me while I help someone else (kind of like saying, "My question is more important than theirs!". It goes into people whistling at me, calling me like a dog. One of the best is people actually yelling at me in anger when I tell them we don't carry the product they're looking for. Author's Note: If you rank as a "feeler" on the Myers-Briggs test, don't work retail. Ever. Trust me.

I usually handle rude people with an extra dose of nice and a little bit of joking. But it's been getting harder lately. So today, I asked my co-worker (who has been working for the company for almost ten years) some questions about dealing with rude customers.

He reinforced what several others have already told me ("Don't take it personally. It's not about you."), added in something new ("I'll get sassy right back! And if they curse at me, I'll walk away. I won't take that!"), and then hit me with something I never expected...

My co-worker isn't a believer. He doesn't go to church. But he knows I am/do. Which made what he said to me next all the more convicting. He hit me with this: "You're a man of the Bible, right? Just treat people the way you'd want to be treated. Even if they don't do the same for you."